The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1887-12-14
FROM BERLIN TO ST. PETERSBURG.
Scenes from a Train During Ride
Inrough Part of Russia.


Scenes from a Train During Ride
Through Part of Russia.
It is forty hours in the train from
Berlin to st. Petersburg. Until you
have travelled right through it you
hardly recognize the greatness OF Prus-
sia. From the French frontier to Ber-
lin is shorter distance than from Ber-
lin to Eydtkuhnen, on the Russian
frontier, and the whole road runs
through well-tilled fields or carefully
fenced meadows, in which shapely cat
tie Craze, and past red-roofed farm
houses with roomy stock yards, testl-
flying strongly TO the orderly, economi-
cal North German spirit.
The Russian railway gauge is differ
ent from the German, SO while chang
ing trains at Edytkuhnen one has to
wait two hours; however, the part
ridges are delicious, and they are pro-
videi at every Russian railway res
taurant. On first crossing the frontier
you see but little difference, for you
pass through Russia's German prov
inces. The provinces were in the thir-
teenth and fourteenth centuries con-
quered from the pagan slavs by the
Teutonic knights "a religious order OF
similar constitution to the Knights
Templars), and by them colonized by
German merchants; and the country,
growing wealthy and prosperous, prom
;sed to become regular part of the
German Empire. 1t had been consti-
tuted an imperial tief, But as the
towns waxed fat they kicked and threw
off the rule of the Teutonic Knights;
with division came weakness; and so
the Baltic provinces fell back first to
Slavonic Poland and then to Sweden,
and after the fall of the Swedish hege-
mony they became Russian, and have
remained so ever since. Until quite
lately they were allowed o large
amount of self-rule, and German was
used as the official language; but it IS
so no longer. Yet the provinces still
show their origin, for al the great
landlords and all the business men are
of German blood, and the language of
business is German, although the peas
ants are Slavs.
AS you get further on into Russia
the long boots of the country people
show that you have come into the land
of mud and bad roads. All along the
line YOU see that monotonous beauty of
every northern landscape-the wild,
thici-grown forest, in which pines and
birch strive for the mastery; the slug
gish river now broadening into sedgy
mere, and deep, soft, marshy meadows
roughly rallied with split timber. But,
above all, the landscape conveys to a
stranger from the west of Europe a
sense of space, as of a country where
every tree is not numbered; where
there is much land and few men; where
it is cheaper and easier to make .
fresh road over new bit Of land than
to repair the ruts of the old track. But
when the sun goes down behind hill,
throwing a bright light on the foliage
of the wood opposite-,a foliage not of
a dusky biue-green, but with the dark
pines relieved by the lightest, freshest
green, the green of the birches-and
the light twinkles on the silver birch
stems and the surface of the quiet river
turns to god, then one sees the Rus
sian sunset as portrayed by Turgenieff
with glamour over its loneliness. At
that moment the sight recalled the
landscape seen so often in stage paint
ing, and the Russian peasants are opera
chorus peasants, dressed in bright red
skirts buckled round the waist and
hanging loose over the trousers, which
are always thrust into long boots.
Over the skirt they wear sheepskin
coming down to their ankles. The
women wear pink or red dresses (the
Slav likes bright colors), bead neck
laces, gaudy handkerchief over the
head, and the legs, when they are not
bare, tied round with bands.
At last we arrive at Gatchina, but
see nothing of the palace from the
train. Then we come to Tsarskoe-
Solo, where there is another palace,
and then the line, skirting the last hill,
enters the great level marsh in which
st. Petersburg is built. There are no
environs, but gradually you see rising
out of the plain mass Of trees, over
which emerge spires and domes, and
then the train rolls into st. Petersburg.
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